Can technology predict wildfires? New systems attempt to better forecast their spread
When freak lightning storms passed over Northern California's wine country last month and sparked hundreds of wildfires, a newly established network of remote weather stations, orbiting satellites and supercomputers spun into action and attempted to predict the spread of what is now known as the LNU Lightning Complex fire.
Firefighters and technologists have long dreamed of a formula or device that would accurately predict the spread of fire, much the way meteorologists predict the possible effect of extreme weather, but it's only recently that big
